Educational big data mining: Mediation of academic performance in crime among digital age young adults

Tin Tin Ting 1 * , Eljrick Tze Siang Lim 2, Jaeky Lee 2, Jeng Siang Wong 2, Jun Hong Tan 2, Ryan Chee Man Tam 2, Jun Kit Chaw 3, Ali Aitizaz 4, Chong Keat Teoh 5
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1 Faculty of Data Science and Information Technology, INTI International University, Nilai, MALAYSIA
2 Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
3 Institute of Visual Informatics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, MALAYSIA
4 School of IT, UNITAR International University, Petaling Jaya, MALAYSIA
5 DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore, SINGAPORE
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: e202403. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/14026
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ABSTRACT

The connection between academic performance and crime has been proven in many studies, but there is a lack of recent literature documenting academic performance as a mediator between predictors and crime, especially in a large population that has grown up in the digital age of which the high frequency of communication exchange differentiates it from previous times. The present study aims to discover the mediating role of academic performance in the connections between each predictor (the Internet usage, biological sex, duration of sleep, fast food intake, medical history, alternate drug use, and illegal drug use) and crime using a large data set from the national longitudinal study of adolescent to adult health (>90,000 sample size). The bivariate correlation between each predictor and crime is presented, as well as the direct and indirect effects for each predictor on crime through academic performance as the mediator. The results highlighted that there is a significant relationship between the Internet usage with crime, a negative correlation of academic performance with crime and positive correlations of fast food intake, alternative medicine use, and illegal drug use with crime. In terms of mediation analyses, academic performance mediated the relationship between all the predictors (except for duration of sleep) and crime. Results may aid education policy makers in deterring crime in the digital age by improving academic performance while targeting its predictors.
Keywords: academic performance, crime, gender, drugs, sleep, health, mediation analysis, digital age.

CITATION

Ting, T. T., Lim, E. T. S., Lee, J., Wong, J. S., Tan, J. H., Tam, R. C. M., Chaw, J. K., Aitizaz, A., & Teoh, C. K. (2024). Educational big data mining: Mediation of academic performance in crime among digital age young adults. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 14(1), e202403. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/14026

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